A Darker Rebirth
by CorEagle
Summary: Why? Why did all this happen? All I ever wanted was to become a powerful Trainer in my own right, maybe even Champion, just like my brother. Except, all I got were the deaths of people who I cared about and enemies who could care less about said people, some even staining my hands with their blood! I...I am Alicia Arc, and this is my bloody story in this twisted region.
1. Prologue: Train Crash

"Station master here. Boarding passes in this area." I walked up to the man calling for passengers and held up my hand.

"Um…Reborn City,"

"Eh? Another one? They sure have been pushing that new league." he muttered.

"Let's see…Which one of these was it?"

Shuffling through the passes, he glanced at me momentarily. I ducked my head.

"This is you, huh?" he said, holding up a pass with the picture of a blonde girl with quite the elegant black dress.

"Y-Yes, sir." he gave off 'hmph'.

"Certainly looks like it."

The officer was about to type when he looked at me again.

"Uh, what's your name again?" he scratched his head awkwardly.

"Alicia."

"Got it." the man began using the…typewriter? Who uses typewriters anymore?

"Just to be sure, for gender, I should put..?"

"Female, sir." Frankly, I am quite offended that the guy has to ask about my gender. Do I not look like the graceful lady type?

"One sec. I'll handle the rest of this."

I looked over and saw that my seat was '5D', whatever that meant.

'Grandview Station…'

It's just hitting me that I'm about to start my adventure. It's the whole reason why I'm about to enter this train after all.

"There, all set," he ripped the pass off and gave it to me. Just before I decided to go and enter the train, he leaned in conspiratorially. Suffice to say, it creeped me out.

"Just between you, me, and the ol' battered fence post, I hear Reborn City's kind of a dump." That doesn't sound right. The poster I looked up and that 'Ame' person said that Reborn was a wonderful place.

"You sure?" I can't help but ask after that tip. He nodded.

"Why anyone would wanna go there is beyond me. And yet," he gestured to the others behind me, colorful people with traveler's bags, "buncha' you ambitious Trainer-type folk have been headin' out in droves." He sighed.

"But off you go now. Train's leaving any minute." O…kay?

I waited at the sidelines, watching the train signal its arrival by blaring a loud horn.

I stepped into the train along with the other trainers whose destinations are the same as mine. The Reborn League.

Little did I know of the horrors that will soon happen.

* * *

I am Alicia Arc, 18 years old and daughter of Nicholas and Juniper Arc. We live in Kalos, in a decently sized house along with my seven siblings. Yes, seven, because Mom and Dad were always in a celebratory mood. Right now, I'm packing up my bag with travel stuff I'm going to bring with me to Reborn City.

"Alicia, you'll need these too." A man walked inside my room, carrying some pokeballs. Ah, my brother, Jaune.

"Thanks bro." I smiled sweetly as I take his balls, and doesn't that sound wrong taken out of context, out of his hands. He just has that goofy grin on his face like he has done some great achievement. I want to wipe it off his face.

Jaune Arc, current defending champion of the Kalos League for 3 years now, cunning strategist on the pokemon battlefield, and also an overprotective brother to all his sisters. Being the first born and the only male out of us 8 siblings had made him quite the papa bear. Of course, his affection has endeared us towards him but his affection tends to go overboard if you know what I mean.

He looked towards my bag that is about to burst from the amount of stuff filling it.

"Uh...Alicia, don't you have any Storage Balls?"

"Storage what?"

"Judging by that reaction, you don't have one. Right, wait here for a bit." He left in a hurry. What was that about?

While waiting for him to get back, I spared a glance to my desk, where some papers were strewn about, and a poster that has a beautiful city in it that says, "Reborn League. Want to apply? Call this number: 956-7887"

I've always wanted to become a trainer ever since my brother became the Kalos League Champion when I was 15. Jaune kept telling me of all the places he has visited, and all the pokemon and trainers that he met. He told me of all the adventures he had, and with it, my excitement grew larger. I, of course, asked if I could be a trainer at the time, but he said no. He's very adamant that I start my journey at 18, like now. I still don't know what his reason was, but that was in the past.

I've been looking for Pokemon Leagues other than the Kalos one, because like I said, he's the champion, and I know I couldn't win against him. He is too powerful, and very much invincible.

I would like to be a Champion too you know!

It was also around that time that I found the poster when I was walking around town. I was excited at the beautiful place the poster showed. I immediately dialed the number, and talked with the League Manager there.

Apparently, her name was Amethyst, but she prefers to be called Ame. We talked about my registration to the League. Apparently, I had to sign some papers that she will send over to my email. I had to print it out, which was no issue as we had one inside the house. She said that she will brief me on the details later on when I'm in the Reborn Region.

"Alicia, these are Storage Balls I was talking about." Jaune walked into my room, interrupting my thoughts, setting a bunch of weirdly colored Pokeballs on my bed.

"Storage balls are used for, as the name implies, storage of items you have for your journey." He began pointing at each ball one by one.

"I've taken care to label them so that you would know where to put each item you've want to store. I know how obsessed you are with organizing." One, its not an obsession, but a desire to remain neat and organized at all times, and two, I don't think you should be saying that Sir Puts-Everything-Everywhere.

"This here," he pointed to a blue and green storage ball, unwise about my thoughts, "is what I'd like to call a Transfer Ball. You know how trainers weren't allowed to bring more than 6 Pokemon with them?" I nodded. "Well, trainers who just want to capture Pokemon got into a lot of trouble due to this rule, so Professor Oak made this so that any Pokeball that already has the 'Capture Signature' on it can be put in here. Then, the next time you see a Pokemon Center with a PC, you can just put that ball on the small pod in front of the screen, and then it will directly transfer the contents to wherever the Transfer Ball is registered to."

"Where is this registered then?" I asked, pointing at the Transfer Ball.

"It's registered to your space in the Ranch!" What.

"What do you mean 'my space'?"

"When you turned 18, our parents, along with myself, paid for an extra large extension to our Ranch, right next to mine, since I knew that you will have your journey soon." He spoke quite excitedly.

"W-Why..!"

Jaune went up to me and looked me in the eye. Then, he turned away and spoke quite loudly.

"Alicia, I want you to catch any Pokemon that seems new or different. You're going to a new region that I never heard of, who knows what kind of Pokemon exists there!" He began drooling. Aaaaand my embarrassment is gone. He just wanted to see new Pokemon I catch. What a manipulative brother.

I looked at the Storage Balls and poked them, trying to see if I could open them.

I heard a smacking sound and looked up to see Jaune with a hand on his face. What's that about?

"I forgot! You don't know how to use these, right? Ahh, I'm a stupid brother!" Yes, yes you are. "Wait, you know how to use these?"

"No, I was just agreeing that you were stupid." I had to stifle my laughter with at the sight of his downtrodden expression. What a silly brother.

"A-Anyways," he coughed a bit, then picked up a ball with a tiny sticker with a t-shirt on it. "This is how you use it. If you want to put something inside the ball, just click the left side button on the ball while pointing at the item you want to store." He demonstrated by pointing at the pink dress that was spilling out of the bag, a beam of light shooting from the center of the ball and into the dress, causing it to disappear. "It will then be inside the ball in digitized form."

"Now, if you want to get something from inside the ball, you need to press the right side button." He pressed the button, and the ball opened. A hologram streamed from inside the ball, showing a tile grid of empty boxes, with the top-left most box showing the dress that was absorbed earlier.

"After that, you select the items you want to get," he pointed the finger close to the box with the dress, then a green outline surround the box. "Then just press the 'Extract' button on the bottom." He did just that and the dress materialized on his other hand. "Simple as that. If you want to organize or set items to quick use, press both buttons at the same time, and it will show you its storage."

"Quick use?"

"Yes, its usually used on potions and the like for fast healing in the wilderness. To register items for quick use, you just drag the desired items to these boxes here. Be warned, you can only register 3 items only, so choose wisely." He said, pointing to 3 boxes just on the side of the tile grid. "To use these functions, just press the 3 buttons on top of the ball." I looked at the Storage Ball, and, sure enough, there were 3 buttons there that were labeled 1 to 3.

He sighed, and patted my head. Ahh~, his headpats were the best~.

"These were ones that I didn't use on my adventure, so take care of them." ...Wait a minute.

"You didn't use? How many do you have?" He scratched the back of his head rather sheepishly.

"Around 10 of each…"

"WHY would you need that many!?" That's ridiculous!

"When you're traveling, you usually find a lot of objects left on the ground, and usually, they're helpful things that you could use or sell on the local Pokemart. I found a lot one time, and made big money by selling them on the local market." That's…no. I've wondered all this time how he managed to provide for himself, his Pokemon, and the amount of Full Restores he has. Turn's out that he has been working as a garbage man all this time.

"So, let me get this straight, you, my respectable brother and Champion of the Kalos League, who's supposed to be the noblest of heroes that defeated Team Flare, went around the region collecting trash to sell on the market," his frame keeps getting smaller and smaller as I continued to speak, "or otherwise stealing items belonging to other people for your own use."

"…Yes?"

"Jaune, you're a petty thief." Jaune flinched like he was just struck. He looked ridiculous.

"Hrk..!" Okay, his whimpers along with his stature looked really funny, and I just let loose my laughter after seeing that.

"Ahh, what a cruel little sister I have." He bemoaned. While I was laughing myself silly, he went close and hugged me. I was still trying to get my giggles on control when he patted me on the head.

"…I'm going to miss you, Alicia." He said with a forlorn look on his face. I hugged him back, my face pressing into his chest and breathing in his scent.

"I'm going to miss you too, brother. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'm strong." I giggled, and hugged him more tightly. He was really warm, and I enjoyed it in the cool nights of Kalos.

"I worry anyways. Be careful Alicia. I love you."

"I love you too bro."

* * *

 **Later on the train...**

This train is surprisingly comfy. I had a whole couch to sit on!

"Might as well organize my inventory. Everything was rushed earlier." I began taking the Storage Balls out of my bag and ordering them one by one. As I was organizing them, I kept thinking about what should I do after I get my starter Pokemon. Ame said that I would get them after leaving the station, but that's it. I could train, but it would get tiring really fast. Hmm...

Before putting the balls back where they belong, I noticed a luxury pokeball inside my bag. I frowned as I remembered what this was supposed to be.

 _"Alicia," Jaune called and handed me a pokeball that looked worn out and well used._

 _"I want you to have this. Inside this pokeball is something I liked to call insurance."_

 _"Why would you give this to me?"_

 _"Whenever you are in an extremely dangerous situation, I want you to call out the Pokemon inside this. Please promise me." I hesitated at answering, wanting to demand what was inside the ball._

 _But...his eyes were full of concern and fear._

 _"All right, I promise bro." Jaune released a relieved sigh._

 _"Thanks. Take care, Alicia."_

 _"I will."_

I looked outside the window and saw lots and lots of sand along with...trains? Woah, many of them are in bad shape. Makes me think that this is some kind of a scrapyard for trains.

Something white flashed on the hill just by the side. I looked towards it and saw an Absol staring directly towards me. That's...creepy. Weren't Absols the Pokemon that warn people of incoming disaster?

...Okay that was a very scary thought. I hope that there is no disaster awaiting for me out here.

"-ank you very much! I'll see you when we get into the city." I turned to see 2 women talking. And one of them just sat across of me.

"All right, hello there!" Uhh...

"...Hello?"

"Your turn now; sorry for the wait." What?

"What do you mean 'my turn'?" She looked shocked.

"You don't recognize me? Ah, I suppose we didn't get a good look on each other's faces on the call. My name's Ame. I am the manager of the Reborn League" OH!

"I-I'm sorry I didn't recognize you!" I flailed my arms a bit after bowing. I did NOT expect this.

"It's fine. Now, I'm afraid I scattered my profiles a bit on the trainers visiting the region." I nodded. "Would you mind telling me your name?"

"Alicia Arc."

"Ah~right. Here's your profile..." ...She seems to a bit of an airhead.

"It's great that a lot of trainers come here now that we are getting things off the ground again." Ame said while digging around her bag. She finally found what she was looking for and began to read it.

"Let's see here, 18 yrs old...oh! You're the sibling of a champion?" Her tone was of curiosity, which were pointedly not the ones that I'd come to hate when I walk around Kalos.

"Yes, the Kalos one."

"Hmm~Well, it's good that you have a role model in life." Ehehe~.

"Well~I've always wanted to be a trainer, and one day become as strong as my brother and become Champion." I said with a silly grin on my face. Ame chuckled like she heard a joke only she was privy to.

"Don't tell me...You're part of the Gym Leaders aren't you!?" I feel mortified that there's one right in front of me!

"Sure, let's go with that." We both laughed a bit, but then I noticed that Ame seems a bit sad.

"Why do you look so down?" I had to ask. She sighed.

"Truth is, due to an incident a few years back, the whole region was completely abandoned...even the Pokemon went up and leave." Why? Was that incident so bad that they can't tolerate the place anymore? Ame seemed to notice my concern since she immediately spoke up.

"Uh...but don't let that worry you! We have been repopulating the region with loads of Pokemon." Oh, that's interesting. Jaune would probably go nuts in this region.

"It might not be an ideal place, but our gym leaders are nothing to scoff about, and I think you'll find Reborn to be a region like no other too!"

"So far this place looks to be very difficult to get any real progress on. Great." I sighed, thinking back to my decision about training. Seems like it'll be mandatory now.

"Oh, don't worry about that. In any case, Pokemon here tend to be a little bit aggressive towards their trainer, as such they will not listen to them should they not have earned their trust through battling. They also seem to know instinctively that you are a good trainer with how many badges you have on hand. So I suggest battling the Gym Leaders in order to have your Pokemon listen to you."

"Right, that does wonders for my confidence." I deadpanned, and she just chuckled at my words.

"Haha, well, as long you know how to take command and strategize on the field, you'll do fine." I made sure to smile a bit.

"Well, thanks, I guess."

"Right, after we arrive at the Grandview Station, disembark along with the other trainers and follow me towards the Grand Hall. There, I'll give you your starter Pokemon to really kick off your adventure in Reborn. Sounds good?"

"Yeah." I looked outside to see that we were nearing a station of some kind.

"Then, if you'll ex-!" Hmm? Ame's voice suddenly cut out into a gasp. Whats hap...pen...ning?

I looked back at her, only to see a black wisp blocking the way. I followed the wisps 'body' to its...face?

"..!" Okay, Alicia, don't panic and DON'T MOVE. It might decide to not kill you.

The 'thing' just gave me a creepy smile and vanished.

"Umm..." I wanted to ask Ame what the hell just happened and if I am going to die tonight. But the serious look in her face made me shut up.

"Something's wrong." Wha?

"...What do you mean?" I don't know how I am still calm about this. Am I going in shock?

"We're near the station, so shouldn't we be decelerating already?" She looked towards the window and her eyes widened.

"Oh no-MOVE!" Ame roughly grabbed me and threw ourselves out the window. I heard the noise of glass breaking and an explosion ringing out in the distance.

All I could think of just before everything went to black was, _'Damnit, Absol.'_

* * *

 **Author's Note: So uhh... end of Chapter One I guess. I'm sorry that I'm not updating my other story, but personal life issues got in the way of that and I have lost all motivation to do that. To regain that motivation, I'll work on this for now until I get my spark back. Sorry guys. Don't worry though. I've got around 20,000 words saved up on the other story, so I'll get back on that soon enough.**

 **Review and Follow everyone! Thanks!**

 **(P90s ARE cute. What are you guys talking about?)**


	2. World of Sorrow

**Author's Note:**

 **Hi there! Nice to see you there! This is the second chapter of this fanfic, if you are somehow stupid or lazy enough not to see or even think that this is the second chapter.**

 **Sorry about the delay to this story. We got shut out of Internet for a month so I wasn't able to upload this.**

 **WOAH WOAH WOAH**

 **PLEASE DO NOT START FIGHTS IN MY REVIEWS SECTION. REVIEWS ARE FOR THE AUTHOR SO THAT THEY MAY IMPROVE. IF YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND THIS MUCH, YOU WILL BE BANNED. PLEAS DO NOT MAKE ME ENFORCE THIS.**

 **ITS AUTHOR'S GODDAMN CHOICE IF THEY WANT TO FOLLOW A REVIEWERS ADVICE OR NOT. SO DON'T FUCKING DEBASE OTHER PEOPLE.**

 **THANK YOU.**

 **The reason why I had those 'tutorial' scenes is that I wanted to highlight Alicia's brother a bit because he...well, I don't want to say much, but let's just say he will get an Arc of his own. (See what I did there? Heh, I'm so funny.) And also that I had nowhere to put those scenes where it makes sense. I am trying to go for a 'realist' type of writing here, so I don't think anywhere else would fit.**

 **Also, thanks for the advice on dialogue tags! It IS a lot more readable now. Please keep looking for any errors. I have no beta, so I don't know if I made mistakes.**

 **Oh, and whoever could guess what Jaune Arc's main pokemon is ALONG with its name gets a sneak preview of THAT Arc. First one only though.**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"...y!"

Ugh, my head hurts so bad. Everything hurts...

"..y! Are you okay!?"

Who...Who was that? Everything is so dark and...and my eyes were closed. That was why it was dark, wasn't it? So, what would happen if I pried them open and-?

"Ugh..." I saw Ame with teary eyes.

"Thank Arceus that you're okay." I smiled to reassure her.

After pulling me up, I looked around the place. Everything's a mess.

"What happened?" Ame sighed.

"The train we were just on exploded right as we pulled into the Grandview Station." Exploded? As far can I see, we're the only one here now aside from some police officers. Doesn't that mean-!

"What about the other passengers?" Please let me be wrong on my assumption. Ame sadly shook her head, damning my thoughts.

"So far, you were the only one I have discovered surviving the blast." Oh...

"Oh..." They're dead. What a fan-fucking-tastic way of starting my journey.

"I'm just glad I could get us out of there in time but for everyone else..." Yeah, sure, remind me that we are the only survivors.

"Well...there's no use thinking about that now." Yep. That way leads to depression and bad thoughts.

Why did this have to happen? Who would even-

"Hi hi!" An energetic voice pulled me from my thoughts. I turned to see a green haired girl with a yellow dress that looks fit for a cheerleader.

"Julia, what did you do?" Ame, from the sounds of it, knows her.

"Whaaaat? I didn't do anything!" Julia exclaimed. She started flailing her arms around.

"I was just at the gym-gym then suddenly "BOOOOOM" and I came running!" Ah, I feel tired just listening to her.

"I wanna know who managed to create such a fine 'BOOOOM'! It's so big and loud!" ...This girl has a few screws missing from her head isn't she? Ame sighed like she certainly was.

"Uh-huh." Ame looked towards the train station.

"Based on the timing, this must have been a deliberate attack. Somebody rigged the train to destroy Grandview station."

"Why would they do that though?" Ame looked back towards me as if in shock. Must be nice to be forgotten here. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.

"Proba-"

"By the looks of it they did a pretty good job!" Julia interrupted her. Ame blinked and turned towards the station.

"...Well, you're not wrong. However, this is isn't the time to be admiring their handiwork. Whoever was behind it could still be monitoring from nearby."

"I'll have the perimeter locked down. There's a chance we could catch the perpetrator before they get away."

"Umm," I hesitated in asking, "what about me?"

"Sorry Alicia, but I have to go. Catch up with me later. Until then..." She adopted a thinking pose.

"Mm, there should be another trainer who can meet you to show you around. Find her in front of the Grand Gall" Where?

"It's just down this road; you can't miss it." WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WOMAN!?

"And uh, don't worry about all of this, I'll handle it." WAIT A-and she left. Great.

"So you're Alicia?"

"Yeah that's me, and would you like to tell me just whe-"

"I'm Julia, captain of cheer and pep, and all things bubbly and bright!"...I can see that. Clearly. Wait, that's not the point!

"Whe-"

"Oh, Pop Quiz! Are you going to take on the Reborn League?" Huh? Oh, yeah, right.

"Of course I am, that's why I came to this region. Not this 'stupid exploding trains' episode." She started jumping like a damn rabbit.

"Correct!" How in the hell was that supposed to be checked on!? "Then I'll be seeing you very soon, because I'm also the Electric Gym Leader!" What!? They let YOU become one of the GYM LEADERS!?

"Oh wow, I've met two Gym Leaders today." First Ame, now this girl...what next? Julia seems to be a bit puzzled.

"Two?"

"Yeah, Ame's a Gym Leader, right?" I asked. She started laughing like a hyena. Is there a joke that I do not know of here?

"Ahahaha! Oh, sure. I'll be looking forward to your challenge, so go one and get down to the Grand Hall already! Tally ho!" THAT WAS WHAT I WAS ASKING THIS WHOLE TIME! And she's gone. Great.

Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, the skies darkened, and droplets of water fell from the skies.

"And now it's raining. Perfect. Can my day get any worse?"

At least I still had my pack.

* * *

It didn't take long for the paparazzi to show up along with the officers. It was by sheer luck that I managed to get out of the scene just before they locked down the area. On the way out, I heard some of the officers talking.

"…ve been in a fifty foot ra…"

"…culprit must be somewhere…"

"…held, but the interior's messed up…"

Good to know that the officers are doing their job properly, unlike some I know. Okay, priorities: Get to shelter. Check my pack if everything is still there. Find where the hell this Grand Hall is.

I looked around to see if there are some roof that I could reside underneath for a moment. I spied a house just off the road a bit. I knocked on the door, hoping someone would answer. The door swung open and a burly man appeared just behind.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Sir, can I go inside for a moment? It's raining and I don't have any umbrella," can't have my pack and clothes getting wet, now can I? Evidently, the owner of the house disagreed, seeing as he shoved me back into the rain.

"Fuck off! I don't want bitches here stealing my shit." How rude!

"S-Sir, please, I don't want to get rained on!" I was this close to outright begging the guy.

"Yeah, well, you can get sick somewhere other than here in my house." He slammed the door shut.

I laid there, silently crying to myself. Why was this person so rude? All I wanted was just a bit of shelter until the storm ended. Was that too much to ask?

"Ahh, this is no time for tears. I need to find shelter, fast." I stood up and took a step. I remembered that earlier I said that I had no umbrella, but I don't know if that was true...

I took out one of my Storage Balls and tried to see if I did bring an umbrella. Aaaand it looks like I did. Why was I just thinking this now?

"I'm stupid..." I sighed, and took the umbrella out and opened it up. Since I'm no longer in danger of getting very soaked in water, I can finally relax for a bit. But I do still need shelter, and it seems this Grand Hall place is the best bet I can hope for, seeing that the people around here are assholes.

As I ran along the road, I saw a lot of people heading towards the commotion. A very pale person with green hair wearing a white dress caught my attention. It seems she was a news reporter, based on how she was holding a microphone, and people with cameras followed her.

 _'Wait, that wasn't a person...That's a Gardevoir! Why is a Gardevoir being a reporter?'_ I was so absorbed by my thoughts that I didn't notice the person in my way until it was too late.

"Ahh!"

"Oof!"

I rubbed my head as pain accumulated there. I opened my eyes to see who it was I bumped into. He looks like a young man around 20 years old, give or take. He shook his head once and stood up, holding his umbrella. He looked towards me and extended a hand towards me.

"Are you okay?" Good to know this town isn't mainly composed of assholes like the last one. I grabbed his hand, helping me to stand up.

"Yeah, somehow. Thanks." I wasn't going to leave help left feeling unappreciated. When I looked at him, he looked like he suddenly had a realization and grabbed me roughly by the shoulders. Okay, I think I might retract on my previous statement.

"Were you on the train that exploded!?" He started shaking me like a ragdoll.

"Yeah..?" Please stop shaking me, I'm getting dizzy.

"Were there any survivors other than you!?" ...oh. Oh dear. How was I supposed to word this?

"I-I'm the only person they found." Yup. Great choice of words there Alicia. Now you got the man looking depressed. What an achievement.

"Oh..." He sniffed. There was something flowing from his eyes and I am certain that is _not_ rain water.

He looked towards the sky sorrowfully, uncaring of the water splashing on his face. As I began to leave this awkward atmosphere, he began to speak.

"My girlfriend was on that train. I planned on surprising her with this wedding ring," he took out a gold ring, caressing it as tears fell on it. I feel bad for this man. What was supposed to be the single greatest moment in his life turned to be the worst one.

"Heh, l-looks like I'm the one that was surprised." He forced a chuckle through his tears. He suddenly thrusted the ring towards me. Umm...what?

"Here, take it. I've no use of it anymore." Why would you give me this?

"Don't you want to have at least a remembrance of her?"

"I feel that if I have that ring, it would just bring me pain every time I see it. I'll get over it, but not anytime soon. I...just want to mourn her for now." He ran off towards the station, before I had any chance to object. The way he looked like worried me greatly. He just has this despondency on his face like nothing matters, just like bro one time when he returned to our house. When I grew up, I learnt what that face meant, and I was horrified when it was the closest a man would off himself.

Ah, this wasn't the time for depressing thoughts. I need to find that Grand Hall fast.

As I ran, the tiles on the floor gradually shifted from dull gray ones to a colorful set. And it seems that it stopped raining.

"Nice to have some sunshine after everything," I muttered, closing my umbrella. I then noticed the water. Eww, why is the water so damn _brown_? It looks like garbage waste, smells like one too! Ugh, how can the people here stand this?

Now, Ame said to follow the road, but now the road is non-existent. Where was I supposed to go now? Hmm...

As I was wondering, I saw a girl looking at everything and everyone. She had long black hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a coat seemingly based on a monk's clothing with yin-yang symbols over a black _hakama **(1)**_. She seemed to be searching for someone. Could she be..?

I walked up to her and spoke.

"Excuse me, but are you Victoria?" Ame said that a young trainer would wait for me. Well, she looks to be pretty young.

"Yes, are you Alicia?"

"Yeah." She seems to be friendly. Though, I don't know why I feel like she is so familiar to me...

"It's a pleasure to meet you, but is everything okay? I heard something happened in the station..." She looked worried.

"Yeah, the train I was on blew up just as soon as we approached the station. I...I was the only person they found a-alive." Damn it, Alicia. Pull yourself together, this is no time for crying!

As I was wiping my tears off, I felt myself being pulled. Victoria had her arms around me, gripping tightly. Oh, that's why I feel like she is familiar.

The way she carries herself...the way she was speaking...it's just like my brother.

Once I tapped her back, Victoria slowly, reluctantly, removed her hands from me.

"Sorry about that, you looked so sad, and I just couldn't resist the impulse and I-" I giggled a bit, and that got her stopping.

"It's okay, I enjoyed it anyways." I smiled. I honestly did feel better after that hug.

"Well, you're here, so I guess you are all right." Hehe, someone's confident about me.

"Ame said that you will give me a tour of sorts, right?"

"Yeah, but we have to bring you to the Grand Hall for registration first." FINALLY, I CAN NOW SEE THIS DAMN GRAND HALL PLACE!

My thoughts must have showed on my face since I could see Victoria trying to hold her laughter in.

"Are you that excited to become a Trainer?"

"Nah, it's just that I keep hearing people to head to this Grand Hall place offering nothing but vague directions. Ame didn't even describe the place to me!" I ranted as we started to walk.

"Then it rained, I forgot that I had an umbrella and ended up getting soaked!" By this point, my face was probably fuming and Victoria didn't hold back anymore and started laughing openly.

"Ahahaha, you have such bad luck!" she said while wiping a tear from her eye.

"I know right!? Then there was this rude man that shoved me back in the rain when I was just asking for shelter. Are all people like that guy?" While I was speaking, Victoria got an increasingly scary look on her face. Yikes, girl, you terrify me.

"No, but most are."

"Why?"

"You'll see later on when I tour you around. Besides, we're here," she sighed, dropping the subject.

I looked forwards and saw a big building with doors that are decorated with the colors red, blue, green, and violet. Victoria walked forward, turning to signal me to follow her.

"Come on, we have to get you changed so that you wouldn't look like a drowned kitten." she spoke with a mischief laden tone. I glared at her indignantly, but soon followed her.

As far as sudden friendships go, this wasn't so bad.

* * *

Never had I ever been so grateful that Storage Balls exist. Granted, I just knew of their existence yesterday, but still. Without these, I wouldn't have any clothes dry enough to wear.

I looked towards the mirror and saw myself with long blonde hair and the gothic lolita dress that I quite liked to wear. A quick look at my pack reveals that none of my balls are missing. Look's like I'm all set!

I stepped out of the changing room and saw Victoria tapping her foot on the floor with her hands on her hips. Once she saw me, she let out a confused sound.

"Why are you still wearing that? I thought you changed already?"

"Yeah, I did. I brought copies of my clothing with me." I got that habit from my brother. One time, I asked why does he have that many copies of his clothes. He said it's for recognizing him pretty quickly by anyone who knows him. Jaune quickly added that it also looks cool. I didn't meet his eyes that day.

"...Do I even want to ask WHY you had copies of the same clothing?" What, like you didn't?

I didn't voice out my thoughts and simply stared at her, smiling. Victoria's expression fell and she released an exasperated sigh.

"Let's just register you already."

"Good." I started following her.

As we walked towards the counter in this large building, I began to notice the amount of facilities here. There's a healing station here, complete with the PC and everything! There's also a market lookalike here too. Huh.

"..oded! Police have already caught the criminal and is now being brought in for questions." Huh, there's also a TV here too. And a...Gardevoir's reporting the news? Is it the same Gardevoir I saw earlier?

I tapped my companion's shoulder to get her attention.

"Say, is that really a Gardevoir?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, that's Gossip Gardevoir." That Pokemon got a nickname?

"Gossip Gardevoir?"

"Gossip Gardevoir is the partner of the Psychic Gym Leader, Radomus." That's...sounds like such a pretentious name.

"How could she speak like that?"

"Her species is one of the few that can perfectly emulate human voices. She's just one that wanted to learn the human language." That's really interesting. I should get one of my own sometime. Barring that, a Psychic type. Communication is key in the battlefield, as my brother would say.

"Huh..."

A comfortable silence fell upon us. As we approached the counter, I searched for Ame's profile.

"Victoria, she's not here."

"Huh, guess she's not. Hey," she said, addressing one of the staff behind the counter. "Where's Ame?"

"She's downstairs, taking care of some papers. You should just wait for a minute, she won't be long, hopefully."

True to his word, Ame emerged not a minute later. She saw us and walked over.

"You're here already. Good. "

"So uhh," I hesitated in asking. "Did you catch the perp yet?"

"Yeah, and our part went as smoothly as we could hope for. We caught the suspect almost immediately." That's good. This region's police force is pretty efficient. Powerful too, considering a Gym Leader like Amethyst seems to be included in it.

"Suspect? You mean about the station?" Of course that's we were talking about! What, you thought it was the daily robbery!?

Ame nodded.

"Yes, and it seems he was not working alone." Aaaand that was worrying. I heard about Team Flare from Jaune, and he told me that usually, each region has its own group of people who, as he eloquently put it, 'are a bunch of retards that want to either unite all people or outright conquer them through the magical power of monsters.' It seems I stumbled across the region's group. I think I broke the world's fastest record of meeting the "evil organizations". Pretty sure that later on I would meet the Pokemon God, Arceus or something.

Oh dear, bro's thinking that life is an anime is clearly affecting me. My consternation must have shown on my face as she immediately placated us.

"But that's not important; it'll be taken care of."

She coughed for a bit, then spoke in what was clearly a rehearsed tone.

''So, you're both here to get signed up for the Reborn League, right?" Victoria nodded, and I let out a sign of confusion.

"I thought Victoria is already a trainer?"

"Ah, right, I never told you. You know how every gym has its Gym Trainers?"

"Yeah?"

"My _sensei,_ the Fighting Gym Leader, has a rule that her students who are aspiring to be Gym Trainers must go on a pilgrimage around Reborn Region after getting some Pokemon for themselves before coming back and doing a test in order to see if the students are worthy enough to be Gym Trainers."

Whoa, that's...

"That's badass." Ame giggled.

"Kiki believes in self-improvement through experience. Part of the reason why she's such a powerful trainer now. Ahh, I miss her." Ame said in a wistful tone. She then shook her head.

"Anyways, I've kept you two long enough. Alicia will go first, seeing as she's the newcomer here." I nodded and followed her behind the counter.

"Good luck on picking your Pokemon!" I heard Victoria say as we ascended the stairs.

The space upstairs was massive. A feature that immediately drew my eyes were 3 large tables filled with Pokeballs.

"Well, here we are. You can choose only one among these 21 Pokemon from the regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and Alola. They are segregated by type, and the color of the table denotes the typing."

A nod. I already made my choice. The Pokemon that will see me through every challenge.

A red light flashed from the ball in my hand.

"Froak!"

"Hey there, Froakie."

Beady blue eyes stared at mine, full of silent determination.

* * *

"So which Pokemon did you choose?"

I refuse to tell her what I chose due to what I heard from Jaune.

 _"Now, when you see another new trainer when you choose your starter, don't ever tell them what you pick. They will ALWAYS choose the starter with a type advantage on you."_

...On second thought, he might actually be just crazy. Victoria must have noticed my face contorting because she started placating me.

"Oh, don't worry about me choosing a Pokemon that has an advantage towards yours. I already have a starter in mind."

"How often does this happen that you immediately know what I worry about?" I asked.

"More often than you think." Huh. Ame cut in our conversation.

"Victoria, it's your turn." Victoria nodded.

"Right, well, wait for me there Alicia."

"Sure."

As they ascended the staircase, I noticed a purple haired person looking around and spinning on the spot. He seemed to notice my staring as well, as he approached me.

"Heyyyy, have you seen Ame around here?" he spoke with a carefree tone.

"She went up the staircase with Victoria." I supplied.

"Ohhhh, so she's with someone else. 'Kay~" he said in a sing song voice. He looks kind of like a fruit, what with those earrings and purple vest.

"Ahh, I forgot my name! I am Cain La Rue, how about you?"

"I'm Alicia Arc, nice to meet you." I greeted. He's surprisingly cheery.

"Alicia...Pretty name." There's my ego boost for the day.

"Thanks." A thought came to mind. "Are you going to get your starter?"

"No, I'm not." he laughed, "I assume you just got your first Pokemon already?"

I nodded.

"And are you going to challenge the league?"

"Yeah, how about you?"

"I was just coming here to resi-well, start over. Figure I'd try taking on this league instead." Woah!

"Wow, were you a Gym Leader or something!?" This is the third time this day I met someone of high standing.

"Not really, I was just an assistant to the Gym Leader." Cain had an excited gleam in his eyes.

"Sooo, whaddya say to a battle, Alicia?"

"Here?" I couldn't help ask. I mean, this is a public center. Others might get hurt.

"It's okay, there are a lot of trainers here as well, looking for others to battle with. Besides, this is too much of a occurrence to begin with." he gestured to the other colorful people in the distance.

"Okay, fine." We went to opposite sides, a fair distance away from each other.

"We'll each use one Pokemon only, right?" I asked.

"Welll, considering that you don't even have more than one Pokemon, I think that will be just fine." I flushed.

At the same time, we sent out both of our Pokemon.

"Froak!"

"Ran!"

The male Nidoran looked pumped up as he stared at my Froakie. The frog Pokemon seemed to be a bit jumpy, nervous even. I looked at Cain, and it seems that he is amused by something.

"Say, is your Froakie male?"

"Um, I don't know?" Why are you asking me this?

"I suppose you don't know, but male Nidorans are fiercely competitive with other males. I think that your Froakie just made a rivalry with Nidoran." Cain's eyes lost their amused edge and replaced with something far sharper. I felt my body tense in response.

"All right, let's start. You may have the first move." Oh, the prick. He's looking down on me, huh? I'll show him.

"Froakie, use Quick Attack!"

Froakie shot forward, glowing a pale white. As he neared the Nidoran, a clap sounded out. The Nidoran somehow sidestepped the attack, and his horn grazed Froakie, judging by the wince on his face.

"What..?"

"When you're a trainer, it's recommended to not talk and use sounds or actions in order to direct your Pokemon. It's very easy to dodge an attack if you know what's coming." Cain advised.

"Why didn't tell me this before?" Cain shrugged with a happy smile.

"Eh, no reason really. Besides, you should worry about your Froakie." I looked towards my Pokemon-still having that white glow-and saw him having purple colors spreading from where he was hit before.

"He's poisoned!?"

"Nidoran's horn secretes poison." Cain said, as if that explained everything.

"Nidoran, use Peck." The Nidoran ran forwards with surprising speed. If it is Peck, then it will just stay on the ground. If so...!

"Froakie, jump!" Cain smirked. What is he up to..?

The moment that Froakie jumped, Nidoran also jumped, legs glowing with power. Froakie cried out in pain as two well placed kicks brought it down to the floor.

"W-What? You said 'Peck'..."

"Another method if you can't use sounds and action is to use misdirection. I purposely trained my Nidoran to respond to attack names with another one." That's...unfair.

"Froakie, get up!" Froakie struggled to stand, with bruises growing on his chest.

"Nidoran, time to hustle." The Nidoran charged with reckless abandon, attacking wildy. Some attacks, Froakie managed to avoid. Others, not so much.

"This is taking tooo loooong for my tastes, Nidoran, set on sides then charge."

"Froakie, be careful!"

Spikes littered the surroundings of Froakie, except right infront. Nidoran charged, and with the frog having no room to dodge, hit Froakie, fainting him.

"Froakie!" I ran towards my Pokemon and picked him up. Cain returned his Pokemon to its Pokeball.

"You should return your Pokemon to its ball so you can heal its wounds at the Pokemon Healing Station." I glared at him.

"And whose fault was that?" He held up his hands.

"Hey, you agreed to battle with me." I glared at him some more, but I reluctantly stopped.

"...Thanks for the battle, I guess." Shut up, my hurting pride!

"At least you already got some glimpse on the tactics used by the trainers in this region." I raised an eyebrow at that. Wasn't he from some other region? Ah well, I'll drop it.

"I suppose so. I'm supposed to pay you, right?" I said, taking out my wallet.

"Ah, no, you don't need to-" I glared at him, making him shut his mouth. My keening pride won't ever shut up if I don't pay at least.

"I-I suppose you could pay for healing my Nidoran." What. Sensing my question, he answered quickly.

"You have to pay for healing Pokemon in Centers." We started to walk towards the Healing Station.

"Why?" I thought it was free, Jaune said as much.

"You can't expect that healing your Pokemon, which were probably injured a lot due to you being their trainer, will be free when it was you who was at fault, can you?" Cain raised a questioning eyebrow. W-Well, I didn't know, okay!?

"How much is it?"

"Only 50 lien. The League knows that a lot of trainers would be bankrupt early on if they charged for a hundred lien." That's true.

We approached Nurse Joy at the station.

"Welcome! Would you like to heal your Pokemon?" the nurse said, spouting out the standard response when a trainer approaches them.

"Yes, along with his Nidoran too please."

"That will be 100 lien." I fished out the required amount and gave it to her. She grabbed the two Pokeballs and put them on top of the machine. She gave them back to me a minute later.

"Have a nice day!" I returned to Cain his Pokemon.

"There you two are!" a voice called out. I turned to see Victoria along with Ame approaching us.

"Sorry~I kinda stole Alicia." Ame looked surprised at his prescence.

"Oh, Cain, I forgot you were coming by."

"It's okayyyy. When you were gone, I met Alicia and had some fun~" WHAT!?

"'Had some fun'? I didn't know you were like that, Alicia... " No, no, you had it all wrong! Stop staring at me with those disappointed eyes!

"N-No, we're just-! I mean..." Cain stood there just looking bemused, the bastard.

"What?" He seemed to come to the same conclusion as the two of us. "Ha ha, no, we just had a battle."

"Y-Yeah, what he said."

"Huh, kinky." AME!

"Oh! That does sound fun!" Victoria, bless her heart, managed to cut off what would be the most awkward conversation to have ever existed.

"I wanna test out my Pokemon too! Come on Alicia, up for one more?" Victoria asked with barely constrained excitement.

"Will it matter if I say no?" Victoria shook her head.

"Nope!" Figures.

Ame coughed.

"All right. Cain, I'll get you registered as a challenger while they do that. Come with me."

"Ooh. Yes, master~!" As they walked away, I could _hear_ Ame quirk an eyebrow.

"'Master'?"

"Nothing~~"

"Uh...huh. Come on."

As we watched them walk out from view, Victoria brought out her Pokeball.

"Well, let's try it!" I brought out my own in response.

"Go Litten!"

My Froakie and her Litten appeared on the battlefield. Victoria was not discouraged at the obvious disadvantage she has, and just grinned.

Meanwhile, Froakie was giving me the stink eye, looking quite a bit more wary and scared. Hey, it was not my fault my previous opponent already had experience under his belt while I had none! Froakie shakily turned towards the Litten. His eyes bulged and his body tensed, looking ready to bolt. Ah, right.

"Intimidate...Of course." I whispered under my breath.

"Litten, Scratch!" I remembered Cain's move, trapping my Pokemon before going for the kill. I waited for the right moment...There!

"Froakie, jump and throw your bubbles on the ground" Froakie didn't move. The kitten landed a hit, knocking him back.

Why didn't he follow..?

"Froakie?" A whine escaped the lips of the bruised frog. His pupils widened so much that they occupied most of his eyes. Why did he looked so scared?

"Ah..." His jumpiness, cautious and wary movements, the hesitant actions, all of those pointed towards the Froakie being timid. And my first battle with him ended our lost. That probable shot through the poor litttle thing's confidence in me. That _hurt._

"Froakie, we will be fine." I smiled and made sure to stare at his eyes unflinchingly, hiding my fears about my ability as a trainer. Concerns could be addressed later.

"Right, let's try this again. I need you to trust me, okay?" The frog slowly nodded his head. Good.

Victoria, tired of waiting for any action from us, attacked once again.

"Scratch!" Litten obeyed and made a beeline towards Froakie.

"Hold!" I barked when the frog made to get out of the way. He shook, but held his spot. Wait...

"Now! Quick Attack!"

Froakie flashed a pale white and zipped by Litten, striking him in the process. Let's see if I learned something from my brother.

"Bubble!"

Then, Froakie turned back while flying and, with a glow of faint blue, unleashed multiple bubbles at Litten, emitting a large amount of steam from impact. A cry of pain sounded out.

"Litten!" The smokescreen cleared to reveal the kitten fainting. Littens were not known for their endurance, so it's easy to see why it fainted fast.

"We won!" I screamed as Froakie tackle-hugged me, with me spinning him around. That felt _good._ Victoria returned Litten to his Pokeball.

"Wow, I don't what to say! You're no ordinary trainer, are you?" I'm very much am.

I returned Froakie to his Pokeball, smiling all the while.

"Well, how much should I pay?" Hmm...

"Well," I smiled impishly, "How about you pay for healing my Froakie?"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE: Like I said earlier, sorry for not uploading this earlier. Internet got cut off.**

 **There is something I like to say though...Nurse Joy's dialogue after healing your Pokemon is "Hope to see you again!"**

 **Scary. Does she, you know, get off at seeing hurt Pokemon?**


End file.
